Coke & Comics

Fourth Day of Classic Comics Christmas

Daredevil and Spider-Man

See my initial post for the context. Suffice to say that I will be sharing my entries to the Classic Comics Forum tradition, “Twelve Days of Classic Comics Christmas“. This is a cross-post of my fourth entry, representing #9 on my list of favorite comic book Crossovers.

9. Daredevil and Spider-Man
“Devil’s Deliverance”
from Daredevil #8 (Marvel, 1998)

by Kevin Smith, Joe Quesada and Jimmy Palmiotti

This was how I got into Daredevil. I hadn’t liked the first couple Daredevil issues I’d picked up as a young child and thus never really collected them. But in 1998, I was interested in Marvel’s “Marvel Knights” line, and brought all 4 new titles. Inhumans remains one of the best comics I’ve ever read. Black Panther was great. And the Punisher series is infamous for turning him into an angel, but I enjoyed it well enough at the time. Probably haven’t gone back to it in 20 years, though.

This is also how I got into Kevin Smith. Not long after reading this I’d see Chasing Amy and Mallrats and finally Clerks, which remains one of my favorite comedy films ever. I’ve since taken every opportunity to see Kevin Smith talk live, probably a couple dozen times by now.

This story is a loving homage to Frank Miller’s work on Daredevil, specifically the “Born Again” series, which I had not read at the time, so did not appreciate. I’ve come to love that series (hint hint) and it’s complicated the question of how to appreciate this homage series in my mind. In “Born Again”, Kingpin tore at Daredevil’s life, trying to take away hope. In this, a MYSTERIOus villain tears at Daredevil’s faith.

The story is mostly wrapped up in 7 issues. The villain stands revealed and dead. But Daredevil is left to deal with the insanity of just how many people, including Karen Page, died for seemingly no reason.

In need of a friend, Spider-Man is there. As Daredevil struggles to make sense of it all, blaming himself and all superheroes for their failings and these mad vendettas they end up entangled with, Spider-Man provides him the needed perspective to restore balance: “You saved that baby girl’s life.”

Third Day of Classic Comics Christmas 2019

Superman vs. The Amazing Spider-Man

See my initial post for the context. Suffice to say that I will be sharing my entries to the Classic Comics Forum tradition, “Twelve Days of Classic Comics Christmas“. This is a cross-post of my third entry, representing #9 on my list of favorite comic book Crossovers.

10. Superman vs. The Amazing Spider-Man
“The Battle of the Century!”
(DC/Marvel, 1976)

by Gerry Conway, Ross Andru, and Dick Giordano

When the word “crossover” was said, crossovers between DC and Marvel immediately sprung to mind. I do love so many of them. And I know exactly what my favorite is, which was set to be #1 on my list, until I read the fine print of this year’s rules and realized I couldn’t have a meeting of their two flagship teams.

So I settled with the classic. The first time Superman meets Spider-Man.

You could tell it was an event. A gigantic comic. So big, that it’s hard to hold. I feel like I need to lay it across my desk to sit on it. But if I do that, the cats try to sit on it. I could shut the door, but then they get angry. Maybe I can sit on the couch with my knee bent to rest it on my leg… look, you try to read this massive comic with two cats who want to sit on your lap and swat at it.

Andru recognizes it’s time for iconic characters to look iconic and draws them as such.

And it’s time for iconic villains. Superman’s archnemesis is pretty universally recognized as Lex Luthor. There is a little more confusion about who Spider-Man’s most iconic villain is. But this comic gets it right: it’s Dr. Octopus.

One less-than-iconic detail that sticks out is the line that Superman fights for “truth, justice, and the Terran way”. It’s an odd phrase. Born out of controversy. The old Superman cartoons had it that Superman fought for “truth and justice”. A good phrase they should have stuck with. But then came the 1950s and McCarthy’s attempts at fascism that led to an epidemic of public displays of patriotism, and the phrase was altered to “truth, justice and the American way”. Out of place for a superhero who should defend all humanity. They seem to be attempting some course-correction here, but they should have just gone back to the original. “Truth and justice” was a good phrase.

It’s also a bit unfortunate that Morgan Edge was Clark’s boss at the time. It would have stood the test of time better if it were Perry White at the bar complaining about his reporters to J. Jonah Jameson. I also wish Peter had met Jimmy, since they’re both photographers. Ah well, can’t win ’em all.

Tales of Suspense #45

The Icy Fingers of Jack Frost!

Featuring: Iron Man
Release: June 11, 1963
Cover: September 1963
12 cents
Story plot: Stan Lee
Script: R. Berns
Art: Don Heck
18 pages

We meet a new villain, Jack Frost. His special suit covers himself in ice and he can freeze people. He isn’t the first ice-themed super character and won’t be the last. Though off the top of my head, I am not thinking of any earlier examples within Marvel. Over at DC, we met Captain Cold in Showcase #8 (1957) and Mr. Zero in Batman #121 (1959).

But Jack Frost is something of a footnote in the Marvel Universe. This is the first of 6 stories he’ll appear in, making him the most significant Iron Man villain we’ve met, but still not all that significant.

The bigger news is that Iron Man gets a supporting cast!

The writers must know that having a supporting cast is a good idea. This isn’t new. Superman has had Lois since his first issue. Jimmy and Perry followed eventually. Batman has had Alfred for a couple decades at this point. It’s just not a new concept. And it’s working really well for Spider-Man. Aunt May, J. Jonah Jameson, Flash Thompson… they help make the book. But the other stories have mostly not bothered with the concept. Thing has Alicia and Thor has Jane, but that’s the extent of it so far.

Second Day of Classic Comics Christmas 2019

Spider-Man and The Man-Thing

See my initial post for the context. Suffice to say that I will be sharing my entries to the Classic Comics Forum tradition, “Twelve Days of Classic Comics Christmas“. This is a cross-post of my second entry representing #12 on my list of favorite comic book Crossovers.

11. Spider-Man and The Man-Thing
from Giant-Size Spider-Man #5 (1975)

by Gerry Conway, Ross Andru, and Mike Esposito

Second Spidey entry. I really could have filled my list with Spider-Man. And a decent chunk of it with this stellar series. But I decided one from this series would have to do. Apologies to the excellent earlier issues where Spider-Man meets Shang-Chi, Doc Savage and Punisher. All contenders.

What do we have here. A lot of focus on character work. Conway uses his page count to shine a spotlight on everybody. It’s during the Clone Saga, so Gwen has mysteriously returned, and everybody is dealing with that. Gwen, Peter, Betty, MJ… we get the first hint of a characterization they will later go all in on for Mary Jane, for better or for worse. We see her on the edge of tears, but then quickly correcting when her Aunt comes in, and putting on a smile and talking about wanting to party. Defalco will later reveal that that’s all she was ever doing, and it will ring untrue.

Conway was more subtle in his treatment of MJ. Maturing her and bringing her and Peter together, while preserving her character.

We also get Curt Connors again turned into the Lizard and see this struggle through the eyes of his wife better than we have before.

We even get solid character work on one random character, a bankrupt chemist on the verge of suicide, whose fate is changed by an encounter with Man-Thing, and who emerges as the hero in the battle against the Lizard.

Not sure if we get good character work on the Man-Thing. You’d have to look closely into his eyes to see what he thinks of these events. All we know is he hears the Lizard’s call with other swamp creatures, and that he seems to respond to intense emotion.

First Day of Classic Comics Christmas 2019

Transformers and Spider-Man

See my initial post for the context. Suffice to say that I will be sharing my entries to the Classic Comics Forum tradition, “Twelve Days of Classic Comics Christmas“. This is a cross-post of my first entry, representing #12 on my list of favorite comic book Crossovers.

12. Transformers and Spider-Man
“Prisoner of War”
from Transformers #3 (Marvel, 1985)

by Jim Salicrup, Frank Springer, Kim DeMulder and Mike Esposito

I’ll start the countdown with a comic of purely personal significance. To the best of my fading memory, this is the first crossover comic I ever read. It is also the first Spider-Man comic I ever read. To learn how much I like Spider-Man, I recommend just looking at the rest of my coming Christmas list. Transformers was the first series I ever sat down to seriously collect as a new comic reader. By “seriously”, I think I tracked down issues #2-5 in back issues over the course of several months… I would get much better at collecting when I got older.

Side note: That I got #5 confused the heck out of young me given that it’s a 4-issue limited series. It confuses the heck out of old me, too.

Anyways, in this issue, after Peter Parker is sent on assignment to Photograph the Transformers, Spider-Man and the Autobot Gears team up to rescue a human from Megatron.

Speaking of confusing things, this comic came out during Secret Wars. So Spider-Man’s costume was not only different from the one I knew from episodes of the old ’60s cartoon I’d seen on VHS, but it seemed to be somewhat alive. I think I briefly thought this Spider-Man and the other one might be two different characters.

Was marketing the motivation for this crossover? Probably. Isn’t it usually?

But this comic formed a bridge of childhood hobbies. In my earlier years, I watched cartoons like Transformers. Entering the second decade of my life, I would get really into superhero comic books, with Spider-Man being easily my favorite.

This was also certainly my first encounter with Nick Fury and SHIELD. But since the comic only called him “Nicholas”, it would probably be a little later before I learned his name.

The CCF Classic Comics Christmas

My favorite community for the discussion of comic books online is the Classic Comics Forum.

And my favorite tradition housed there is the Twelve Days of Classic Comics Christmas. Which has just begun, as the 12 Days of Christmas have begun.

The forum has been around since 2014, but the tradition goes back to 2005. I’ve been a participant since 2006. Every year, there is a comic-related theme. And you choose your 12 favorite entries in that theme.

The theme this year is Your Twelve Favorite Comic Book Crossovers. The thread I linked to has all the fine print for the rules. In particular, this is not for big crossovers with teams or many characters. We’re focused especially on two-way crossovers between comic book titles or between comic book characters and external franchises.

As I am making my entries there, I will cross-post to this blog. So stay tuned to discover my Twelve Favorite Comic Book Crossovers.

In the meantime, consider registering an account and joining the community as CCF yourself. Then tell us what your favorite crossovers are.

Tales to Astonish #47

Music to Scream By

Featuring: Ant-Man and Wasp
Release: June 4, 1963
Cover: September 1963
12 cents
Story plot: Stan Lee
Script: H.E. Huntley
Art: Don Heck
13 pages

I read this story in Marvel Masterworks:Ant-Man/Giant-Man vol. 1.

After alternating between crediting himself with either “story” or “plot”, Stan has decided to cover his bases and give himself credit for “story plot”.

Ahem.

Now I’ve heard there was a secret chord…

That David played, and it pleased the Lord…

But you don’t really care for music, do you?

It goes like this, the fourth, the fifth…

The minor fall, the major lift…

The baffled king composing “Hallelujah”…

Hallelujah!

Journey Into Mystery #95

The Demon Duplicators!

Featuring: Thor
Release: June 4, 1963
Cover: August 1963
12 cents
Story plot: Stan Lee
Script: R. Berns
Art: Joe Sinnott
13 pages

I read this story in Marvel Masterworks: The Mighty Thor vol. 1.

In going through the results of a recent poll on favorite Marvel/DC characters, my friend Brian Cronin talked about the idea of a “MARVEL science” degrees for his entry on Beast. He notes that Beast is a MARVEL scientist, and

From Brian:

Marvel Universe science is a lot more diverse than regular science. You see, Hank eventually gained a PhD (done while the rest of the X-Men were vainly trying to complete their GEDs) in biophysics and genetics. However, he achieved these PhDs in MARVEL science, so this made him an expert in engineering, medicine, time travel (yes, time travel), etc. It is like how one of the most highly-developed robots of all time, Ultron, was built by Hank Pym, a biologist. It is because Hank is a MARVEL biologist. Very different than normal biology. It’s like “How would you best describe a cell membrane? Also, how would you build a device that could negate Magneto’s powers?” All in the same class!!!! And MARVEL scientists always have multiple doctorates by the time they’re 22. It’s a rule.

Now, we’ve seen a pretty clear counterexample to that. Dr. Pym turned down a request for help from Wasp’s father because it was outside his area of specialty. He claimed he was only an expert in “molecular cell transition” (i.e. making people shrink) and “cell specialization” (i.e. making people grow wings). As of where we are in our reading, he has not yet built any robots.

Dr. Don Blake is a surgeon and a very good one. Surgery is a hard thing to master. It takes a lot of time to study. It’s a demanding job, always being on call. He’s also always on call as a superhero.

Yet somehow he built an android in his spare time.

Tales of Suspense #44

The Mad Pharaoh!

Featuring: Iron Man
Release: May 9, 1963
Cover: August 1963
12 cents
Plot: Stan Lee
Script: R. Berns
Art: Don Heck
13 pages

I read this story in The Invincible Iron Man Omnibus vol. 1.

In June 1963, a Cleopatra film starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton debuted.

One month earlier, perhaps in an attempt to ride a marketing tail, Iron Man meets Cleopatra!

While there are certainly lots of things Iron Man can do that may seem like sorcery to Cleopatra, having wheels is not one of them.

The comic does end with Iron Man attending the Cleopatra film premiere, to make this a very specific nod.

Now, Anthony Stark is already famously a ladies’ man. And a reporter earlier in the issue asks him about how he’d fare if he met her. It turns out very well. She is smitten with him despite never seeing his face. He wears bulky Iron Man armor the entire time.

Fantastic Four #17

Defeated by Dr. Doom!

Featuring: Fantastic Four
Release: May 9, 1963
Cover: August 1963
12 cents
Story: Stan Lee
Art: Jack Kirby
Inking: Dick Ayers
22 pages

I read this story in Fantastic Four Omnibus vol. 1.

We see the first of an effect that will be used again on Fantastic Four covers. Four panels on the cover. One for each member of the team. Perhaps with a centerpiece for the villain.

Alicia gets herself kidnapped by Dr. Doom. The girlfriend being held hostage is an old superhero trope going back to Lois Lane. We’ve seen it in the Marvel Universe already with Jane Foster.

We get a little insight into Doom’s mindset. He relates to the Thing, as both are grotesque. Yet, Thing has found love. Rather than causing him to reflect that maybe it’s okay to remove his mask, Doom still believes nobody can love him and vows revenge on all humanity. Notice that the art is going out of its way to not show us Doom’s face.